After years of talking, planning, and negotiating, the county commissioners have approved a deal with the federal General Services Administration to remodel much of the courthouse as space for federal courts.
They approved the agreement on March 10.
The 10 year lease is for 6,655 square feet with an annual payment from GSA of $236,699. That includes a 3.25 percent interest rate on the remaining remodeling costs listed at $749,722 after an up-front GSA payment of $412,290.
Along with the remodeling, the deal includes charges for security, cleaning, and utilities with annual cost of living increases.
Assistant County Manager Joanne Spina said the deal will allow for a federal courtroom and space for a visiting senior status federal judge, so local federal cases can be heard here instead of in Denver.
It also will add space for district courts and staff, the probation office and county attorneys, Spina said.
"We will be adding two courtrooms on the first floor," she said. The county is looking at reconfiguring the courthouse public entrance with its security check to accommodate more people coming in, such as for juries.
County Commissioner Julie Westendorff noted, "Part of this is for our own needs for more judges with no additional courtrooms. It's the state that decides how many judges will be here."
Spina said, "District judges aren't just sharing courtrooms. They are sharing chambers."
The deal with GSA "isn't structured so that county residents would be subsidizing federal courts," Westendorff said. "At the end of the lease, the feds will have built us another courtroom."
County Manager Joe Kerby commented, "There were days when I doubted this would happen. It seems anti-climactic with all the work that's gone into it. Blood, sweat, and tears definitely went into this project."
Work is nearing completion on the old Vectra Bank building that will house the county offices displaced by the courthouse remodeling and lease. That's supposed to be ready by June.
According to Spina's staff report, the courthouse remodel is expected to start in January 2016 and be finished in late 2016.
Back in December 2011, the commissioners at the time approved purchase of the Vectra Bank building, along with the 2012 county budget that contained $2 million for courthouse remodeling, $2.7 million to buy the bank building, and $500,000 to remodel it.
In February 2012, the commissioners made an initial lease offer to GSA and authorized staff to negotiate specifics.
